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HELENA – Montana Attorney General Tim Fox joined 36 other state and territory Attorneys General on Monday demanding answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the company’s business practices and privacy protections.

The letter to Zuckerberg comes after news reports that the data of at least 50 million Facebook profiles may have been misused by third-party software developers such as Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm affiliated with President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.

The letter was sent the same day the the Federal Trade Commission said it was investigating the social networking service for its privacy practices.

The firm is alleged to have created psychological profiles to influence how people vote or even think about politics and society. This was done without the knowledge or consent of these users.

Zuckerberg placed advertisements apologizing Sunday in U.S. and British newspapers.
"This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," the ads said.

Zuckerberg has reportedly lost $10 billion over the 10 days as the Cambridge Analytica crisis played out.

Fox said he was one of five lead attorneys general in the inquiry seeking answers from Facebook and ensuring its users can control the privacy of their accounts.

“Consumers everywhere deserve answers in light of recent revelations regarding the unauthorized harvesting of data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles,” he said.

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox(Photo: Courtesy)

The letter to Zuckerberg asks about the social networking site’s policies and practices, including: were those terms of service clear and understandable? How did Facebook monitor what these developers did with the data. what type of controls did Facebook have over the data given to developers, the number of those affected in the signatory states.

The Attorneys General said Facebook apparently relied on terms of service and settings “that were confusing and perhaps misleading to its users.”

They also request an update about how Facebook will allow users to more easily control their account privacy.